KARACHI, March 20: Power breakdowns occurred in many parts of the city on Thursday despite the fact that summer is still away.

While no official word was available to justify the power breakdowns, sources working in various complaint centres of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation told Dawn that they had received complaints from Federal B Area, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Lyari, Kharadar, Sharafabad, Sindhi Muslim Society, PECHS, Korangi, and Gulshan-i-Iqbal, mostly in the early hours of Thursday.

Calling from Gulistan-i-Jauhar, a resident said that his locality had experienced multiple power breakdowns between noon and 1.30pm. “They were brief power breakdowns, but such power shutdowns do more damage to electronics appliances than prolonged ones. As somebody who has technical information, I know that such sharp power breakdowns cause transient currents to be generated which adversely affect integrated circuits in an electronic appliance,” he explained.

A resident calling from New Karachi said his anger had known no bounds when he read the statement of the KESC managing director recently in which he had said that the power utility shut down feeders in those areas where power pilferage was rampant.

“The KESC managing director had no qualms of conscience about declaring that the power utility penalizes even those who regularly pay their electricity bills for the sins of those who indulge in power theft,” he observed.

A resident phoned from Sindhi Muslim Society to say that he was extremely upset with the KESC for allowing so many power breakdowns to occur which had prevented him from watching TV telecast showing the US-led attack on Iraq. “Everybody is watching TV to find out what is happening in Iraq which is being attacked by the-US led forces. We had three prolonged power breakdowns which cut us off the rest of the world.”

Shoaib Ahmed, a resident from Federal B Area, Block 18, said that power breakdowns had affected cable operators as well. “The network of the cable operator in Federal B Area is spread in such a way that in Block 18 we get the cable connection from the main server in Block 12. Now, earlier in the day while Block 18 had electricity the power supply to Block 12 had been interrupted which had deprived us of TV transmission.”

Calling from the same area but from the different block, a resident said his locality had one brief power breakdown in the early hours of Thursday.